One fateful night, Jeremy Belpois, a solitary junior-high student at Kadic Academy, switches on the mysterious computer inside an abandoned factory he had discovered several weeks before near the school. Nothing could have prepared him for what he would find flickering on the screens - a virtual damsel in distress. Profoundly shaken by this extraordinary discovery, Jeremy starts researching the Supercomputer and its contents. Before long, he becomes the target of strange electronic attacks, undoubtedly linked to the newly-functioning machine. Realizing he is in over his head, Jeremy confides in his roommate, Ulrich Stern so his friend can help him against the electronic attacks…and rescue the girl in the virtual world! And so the adventure begins! Before long, the two boys join forces with a new student, Odd Della Robbia, and the serious-looking Yumi Ishiyama, a Japanese girl with a flair for martial arts. The gang finds themselves faced with an electronic offensive like none other – and, in an incredible journey into the virtual universe, penetrates into a world of danger never imagined. By the end of their first thrilling adventure, Jeremy, Ulrich, Odd, Aelita (the virtual girl) and Yumi become inseparable. They now realize that turning on the Supercomputer has inadvertently awakened a powerful enemy: XANA – an evil artificial intelligence which wants to destroy them. Yet despite the threat to their safety, they remain determined to find a way to free Aelita from her virtual prison. Together, our newfound heroes make a pact to continue the struggle against XANA and to keep their secret from the prying eyes of others!

Detailed summary

This episode begins as recounted by an electronic diary written by Jeremy. During the narration, we see Jeremy sneaking to the factory during the night, into the Supercomputer room.
While the journal speaks with Jeremy’s voice, it explains that one day Jeremy went to the factory to find scrap material to finish one of his miniature robots. He had then discovered the inactive scanners, Supercomputer and control terminal.
The voice of the journal concludes by saying that that night, Jeremy decided to reactivate the Supercomputer, which had until then been turned off

Standing before the handle, Jeremy flips the switch, hoping that he won’t regret it one day. In a large blast of light and wind the machine starts up again, ruffling Jeremy’s hair.
Unphased, the boy gets into the elevator and returns to the control terminal, where the screens have come out of their long sleep. Windows open, but the largest captures all of Jeremy’s attention…Aelita seemingly sleeping peacefully…amazed by the girl’s beauty, Jeremy asks if she is part of a video game, before she awakens and asks him who he is and where she is…

Back in the classroom Ulrich is sceptically making acquaintances with Odd, his new roommate…at the same time, Sissi takes the opportunity to harass and offer him an invitation for the evening, which Ulrich pretends to accept…
Odd never ceases to bury the boy in his laughable jokes and isn’t discouraged when Ulrich asks him to leave him alone.

We find Jeremy at the factory. He’s in contact with the AI which he has named “Maya.” Not knowing what she’s doing there, Jeremy tells her that from what he’s understood, she’s in a virtual world called Lyoko. He asks her if there’s a way to leave the Tower and Aelita does so, surprised as she passes right through the wall of the tower. The holomap then activates, showing an entire virtual world and leaving Jeremy flabbergasted. He reveals to Aelita that she’s in a world not limited to just the Forest. He says that he can spot four Sectors…the young pink-haired girl runs into Kankrelats which then attack her, forcing her to hide in the Tower.

Jeremy returns to the school and is electric shocked by a drink machine…Ulrich takes him to the infirmary, while the eye of XANA appears on the machine…
Jeremy isn’t in danger.

That evening, Ulrich is training in martial arts in the gymnasium under the eye of Jim with a pretty Japanese girl called Yumi. Annoyed at having taken a blow, he leaves the gym but both seem to have fallen for the other’s charm. Ulrich finds back in his room that Kiwi has turned everything upside-down and decides to notify the principal about the dog’s existence. On the way, he hears a cry from Jeremy’s room…the robots the boy genius had made had started to turn against their creator. Jeremy manages to fight them off with Ulrich’s help, but the tries to convince Jeremy that he has to explain the origins of all these strange phenomena around him…
Cornered, Jeremy decides to take Ulrich to the factory. He reveals everything to him: how he met Maya who had no memory and how an evil entity was making an attempt on his life by hacking electronics, and on Maya’s through the use of monsters; he tells him about the scanners that can be used to travel between the two worlds…not convinced, Ulrich decides to use Kiwi as a guinea pig. He manages to grab Kiwi but wakes Odd up at the same time. Ulrich then heads back to the factory with his roommate and Sissi right behind him!

Ulrich places Kiwi in a scanner but Odd accidentally takes his place. He is trapped inside as Sissi looks on in in terror and finds himself landing in the Forest. Ulrich joins the enthusiastic boy immediately. Both discover their virtual appearance and weapons.

On Earth XANA launches his attack! The electric cables of the room disconnect from their sockets and go crazy! They start to threaten Jeremy and Sissi…

Accidentally entering the Way Tower of the Forest, Odd and Ulrich miss the platform and fall into the digital tunnel leading to a tower in the Ice Sector, and when they leave, on one hand they spot a Tower with a red glow, on the other, they come face-to-face with Bloks…

While they modestly face the three block-faced monsters on Lyoko, Jeremy is electric shocked…
The two heroes, not really knowing how to fight, only destroy one of their enemies before being devirtualised…

On returning to Earth, they rush to Jeremy's aid and cut the wires that are attacking him…
Aelita asks him how he is and he replies that he’s probably seen worse…

The episode draws to a close. However, in the Ice Sector, the infected Tower continues to boast its red glow, while an attack is undoubtedly in preparation…one more violent than the last…

Memo

- Attack: Take control of electronics to give some juice to those who know about the existence of the Supercomputer.
- Visited Sectors: Forest; Ice
- Virtualisations: Odd; Ulrich
- Monsters faced: Kankrelats (3); Bloks (3)

- It was Jeremie who discovered the factory and Aelita (who he at first named Maya). He turned the Supercomputer back on himself. Aelita hadn’t the slightest recollection and discovered her world at the same time Jeremie did, before being attacked by Kankrelats and taking refuge in a Tower. Jeremie then confided the secret to Ulrich when he discovered that the hero was the deliberate target of attacks. Following the notebook (doubtlessly Hopper’s), Jeremie found out everything he could about the virtual world, virtualisation, etc.
Ulrich and Odd fortuitously met because Odd, a newcomer, was placed in the same room as Ulrich.
Ulrich took Kiwi to be a guinea pig in virtualisation, but in doing so led Odd and Sissi to the factory. Odd was accidentally virtualised and followed shortly after by Ulrich. They discovered their new looks with enthusiasm and compared the whole thing to a video game.
The secret therefore was first kept between Jeremie, Ulrich, Odd and Sissi…all promising not to tell it to anyone else.
XANA launched its first attack and the heroes began to fight against the monsters in finding their weapons, but they weren’t very successful in battle. Jeremie was saved from the attack but the Tower in the Ice Sector remained glowing red at the end of the episode…

- Only episode summarised with a voiceover.

Trivia

About the characters

- Sissi is already in love with Ulrich, shooting him loving glances…
- Jim was a forest ranger in Quebec and master of the Raging Hand of Lei Fu Chang!
- Jeremy falls immediately for Aelita’s charm, as soon as she appears on the screen.
- Before meeting and becoming friends, the heroes referred to one another by last name.
- Martial arts classes take place between Yumi and Ulrich in the gymnasium under the tutelage of Jim. It’s one of the first times they have made contact, pretty violent but they still blushed when they found their faces almost touching…
- Odd has a different hairstyle. Long hair but not spiked up…

About errors

- Odd’s bed sheet changes when he presents his dog to Ulrich.
- Just as Ulrich is devirtualised, the Way Tower has a red glow.
- The door to Jeremie’s room is brown instead of grey just before Ulrich enters.
- Odd’s pants are entirely the darker colour at the moment when Jeremie is getting ready to speak to Aelita.
- In certain scenes, Jeremie can communicate with Aelita, Odd and Ulrich without a microphone.
- The marks under Nicolas’ eyes disappear while he walks behind Sissi who is talking to Ulrich.
- The yellow button used to call the lift is absent before Jeremie presses the red button to go to the lab.
- Jeremie says he is a year 8 student, but the prequel takes place one year before season 1, so he should have said that he was a year 7 student.
- At the moment Aelita says hello to Jeremie, she’s modelled like in season 1 (small eyes and earring at the point of her ear).
- When Jeremie is typing on his computer, a pen can be seen lying on the cable of his keyboard, and when he notices the eye of XANA on one of his robots, the pen disappears.
- In episode 49, “Franz Hopper,” Jeremie says that they turned the Supercomputer back on together, but i this episode we see that it was Jeremie who turned it on by himself.

About the series

- French title: Le réveil de XANA (Partie 1)

- This episode was aired later in season 3 but the events take place before the season; their very first fight against XANA. This “prequel” episode was conceptualised very early, around the end of season 1. It was originally planned to be shown during season 2.
- First episode to finish on a shot of an activated Tower.
- Kiwi was almost virtualised, and in episode 80 “Dog Day Afternoon” he will be.
- Jeremy (to Ulrich) “What’s the matter? Scared of heights?”
In episode 44 “Vertigo,” this is confirmed.
- Odd uses his shield, which he normally seemed to acquire in season 2 (or maybe he spent a season not using it).

- We can notice in this episode elements that refer to the original project of Code Lyoko: Garage Kids!
When Yumi tackles Ulrich to the ground, their both blushing appears in both cases.
The most noticeable is the quote: “Tell me if you can keep a secret.”/”Can you keep a secret?”

About references

-The name Jeremy gives to Aelita during one of their first conversations can be seen as an affectionate pseudonym, because in a combination of English and French it can be written “My IA” (My Artificial Intelligence).

- Sissi: “It’s probably more like some sort of ritual sacrifice or voodoo thing!”
Voodoo is a religion with many rituals, including animal sacrifice.

- Odd: “Those things look like coffins…”
Sissi: “You’re right! Maybe it’s the tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh, huh?”
Sarcophagi are types of coffin in which the Egyptians of Ancient Egypt mummified their dead, and sometimes even their pets! The sarcophagi of pharaohs were sumptuous and hidden in tombs with secret traps. Putting the dead in sarcophagi preserve the body intact for thousands of years!

Quotes

Jeremy’s diary: Diary of Jeremy Belpois, Kadic Academy eighth grade student, October 9th. A few weeks ago I was hunting for parts to finish building my miniature robots. I couldn’t find anything around here I could use, so I decided to rummage for scrap in the abandoned factory not far from the academy. I figured that I could find plenty of cool old mechanical stuff left inside there that would be useful. And I wasn’t disappointed, it was unbelievable! I stumbled into some sort of complex, with an entire computer lab with scanners, and especially this totally intense mainframe. For the moment, I haven’t told anyone, it’s my little secret. It’s the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me. And that wasn’t all; that night, even though I was scared stiff, I decided to start up the computer.

Odd: And the waiter says, I don’t have frog’s legs, that’s just the way I walk!
(only Odd laughs)
Odd: You get it?
Ulrich: No. But what I am beginning to get is that you’re determined not to give me a break!
Odd: We’re going to have to get to know each other. And you’ll see, by the end of the day, you won’t be able to do without me!

Aelita: Uh, Jeremy? I’m not all alone out here…there are some animals.
Jeremy: That’s fantastic! This virtual world has an entire ecosystem with virtual living creatures! Can you get closer?
Aelita: Jeremy! They’re attacking me!
Jeremy: Run away, Maya! Get back to the Tower!

Ulrich: Plus, no offence, but you’re not her type.
Odd: Oh yeah, I hear that a lot.

Ulrich: You wanted some juice, well you got some!
Jeremy: Very funny, Stern…but, thank you all the same!
Ulrich: Don’t mention it.

Jim: How are you all? I’m happy to see so many of you here tonight!
(Ulrich is the only one sitting in front of him…)
Jim: Canari Paya! Kogusoku! Jutsu! No, these are not dishes from the Golden Dragon Chinese restaurant. Hahaha! Eh? Ah…no offence, Miss Ishiyama.
Yumi: None taken, Sir. I’m Japanese.

Jim: As they did for me when I was a forest ranger in Quebec!
Ulrich: Really? What happened?
Jim: That night, well, I was quietly enjoying a waffle with maple syrup by my campfire when I was attacked by a vicious beaver! Its razor-sharp teeth were going for my jugger, but I was able to save myself thanks to my perfect mastery of the Raging Hand of Lei Fu Chang!
(Yumi and Ulrich burst out laughing)
Jim: What? What’s so funny about that?
Yumi: Excuse us, sir!
Ulrich: Honestly, I think you would’ve been better off not talking about it!

(Ulrich turns and leaves without having bowed to Yumi after combat)
Yumi: Well nice to meet you too…

Ulrich: Huh?! What is with this mess?! Where did that mutt come from?!
(Ulrich finds the mess Kiwi has made in his room)
Odd: Uh…that’s Kiwi, my dog. He just had a little fit, that’s all. You’ll understand. The poor thing’s not used to being cooped up.
Ulrich: I mean look at this! My CDs, my clothes, he’s trashed everything! And he-argh! Did you see what he did in my bed?!

Jeremy: Oh yeah? And what would you call this, huh? A program for spray-painting doors?
Aelita: Hello, Jeremy!
Ulrich: Who’s the girl with the pink hair?!

Jeremy: Ok. But first I want to help Maya to understand what she’s doing on Lyoko.
Ulrich: Say what?

Jeremy: In fact, the Supercomputer analyses your molecular structure through these cabins, and then breaks down your atoms before digitalising them, and re-creating a digital incarnation in the virtual world!
Ulrich: Hmph, in English?
Jeremy: You go inside the cabin, you’re teleported to the virtual world.

Odd: But why is he taking Kiwi to this factory?
Sissi: Who knows? Maybe he wants to use him for some sort of horrible science experiment!
Odd: You watch too many horror movies!
Sissi: Yeah, you’re right, that was pretty dumb. It’s probably more like some sort of ritual sacrifice or voodoo thing!

Odd: Am I…in a video game? It looks like the set for Babylon Ninja Fighters III!

Odd: Uh, there are these giant cockroaches attacking me, is that normal?
Jeremy: Yeah…
Odd: Oh, nothing to worry about then!

Sissi: What? Send us where, Ulrich?
Ulrich: To a virtual world where weird monsters want to massacre you. You wanted to go out with me, now’s your chance!
Sissi: No thanks, uh…I prefer real worlds, I’m not into the other kind. Plus I couldn’t possibly miss cheerleading practice tomorrow morning!
Ulrich: See ya, chicken!

Odd: Hey that’s not fair! How come he gets to be a samurai? That’s so much cooler!
Jeremy: I have no idea why. Maybe the computer just reads into your own subconscious desires and projects them onto your digital incarnation…
Odd: I don’t dream about giant purple cats! What’s more, I’d rather have a weapon like Ulrich, not these great big useless paws!
(Odd inadvertently fires a laser arrow that barely misses Ulrich and flies off into the distance)
Ulrich: Hey, watch out!
Odd: Hm…these arrows are pretty cool. I take back what I said!

Odd: Who’s this Maya?
Ulrich: A virtual girl who lives on Lyoko.
Odd: Oh, you mean there are babes here too? Great!
Ulrich: Yes, but I get the impression that Belpois’ flipped for her.
Odd: For a virtual chick? Is he nuts?
Ulrich: Kinda…

Sissi: Sic ‘em I said, sic ‘em you dumb mutt!

Odd: Ok, right…where are we? Where did the Forest go?
Ulrich: How should I know?

(Ulrich jumps on a Blok and starts to hit it with his sword (a pitiful sight) before jumping back to the ground)
Ulrich: So how do you kill these things?